Friday, December 31, 2010

What everyone doesn't know

'Everyone knows' that a 'final status' agreement between Israel and the 'Palestinians' will look roughly like the Clinton parameters of December 2000: A 'Palestinian state' more or less along the 1967 borders, some land swap with Israel to avoid massive uprooting of revenants, a shared Jerusalem as capital of both states, no right of return for 'Palestinian refugees.' Is that a fair summary of what 'everyone knows'?

The summary has a slight problem. A new survey shows that a solid majority of 'Palestinians' would reject that deal, while a majority of Israelis would accept it subject to the 'Palestinian state' being demilitarized and the number of Jews being uprooted being minimized. The bottom line: The 'Palestinians' reject what 'everyone knows' is the 'solution.'

A new poll conducted jointly by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace shows that the Palestinian public opposes such a solution by a lopsided majority.

The poll presented a package modeled on the Clinton Parameters: (1) an Israeli withdrawal from more than 97 percent of the West Bank and a land swap for the remaining 2-3 percent; (2) a Palestinian state with a “strong security force” but no army, with a multinational force to ensure security; (3) Palestinian sovereignty over land, water, and airspace, but an Israeli right to use the airspace for training purposes and to maintain two West Bank early-warning stations for 15 years; (4) a capital in East Jerusalem and sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods and the Old City (other than the Jewish Quarter and the “Wailing Wall”); and (5) a “right of return” for refugees to the new state and compensation for their “refugeehood” and loss of property.

The package was opposed by 58 percent of the Palestinians, with only 40 percent favoring it.

It was not a case of one or more individual elements in the package causing a problem. Each of the five elements was polled separately; not one of them commanded majority support.

Did someone forget to tell the 'Palestinians' what everyone knows? If not, why won't they just get with the program? What could go wrong?

0 Comments:

Links to this post:

About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-three years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 11 to 31 years and seven grandchildren. Three of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com